HMC #17 : Star Wars Steampunk - Scout Trooper

#1

Hey everyone! I saw the topic and couldn’t resist embarking on my first HMC. My brother does a lot of Star Wars prop work, so I’ve been fascinated by the imperial armor designs. Anywho, I’ve chosen to do a steam punk scout trooper as my model. The concept was my own, but the art was done by a friend, Ben Fleuter. Here’s his website if your curious, and I’d like to give him due credit. http://milkinthepantry.com/

I’m still waiting on orthographics (it’s a bugger when concept artist falls sick), but I already started the helmet. Here is a low poly render…


…and a smoothed render.

And here’s a wireframe render for anyone who’s curious.

#2

In conjunction with that, the next three renders show my struggle to understand the form of the helmet. At the beginning, I was able to grasp the basic shape but didn’t fully understand how the back of the mask flared out.

After sometime spent experimenting and studying the reference material, I defined everything a bit more.

I was finally able to wrap my mind around the form and found the direction I needed to go in.

As an intermediate modeler, I find I still hit roadblocks in grasping how to approach modeling forms like this; but my problem solving is getting better. Any critiques and comments are welcome. :slight_smile:

#3

Hey all! Here’s another update showing the workflow for the scout goggles.

I started by extracting the faces used in the the lens of the original mode.

I then used a cylinder as a reference and snapped vertices in the lens to the cylinder.

As seen above, I ran into some awful poly flow. I tweaked it a bit but concentrated more on extruding the telescopic lens.

After that, I added a bit more detail and tweaked everything to get the flow I needed.

I suppose that now’s a good time as any to show my change of concept. Thanks to my professor, I’m staying with the orginal idea, but I’m making it into a Bothan scout. I’m using some concept art from Star Wars Galaxies, though I can’t seem to find the artists names. I’ll be making ear holes in the helmet and adding braids over the shoulders. I also have to modify the shape of the boots. It just seems to give the whole model more character instead of being so generic.

Thanks for looking!

#4

The bothan idea is great, you could try looking up ornate designs related to bothans and try integrating that into the detailing/trim of the armor for a bit more flare. The mask looks good, except for some tesselation around the corners of there the goggles sit, and on the goggles themself.

#5

It’s looking good. I like the new direction you’re going to go in.

#6

Thanks man, I appreciate it. I’m hoping to model the ears and cut out holes for them in the helm today. I should also be getting the rest of the concept art soon too, so that I can finally move on to the rest of the body.

#7

Hello! Time for another update. This evening I got started on the arms and body of the scout. I have yet to modify the helmet and mask for the Bothan look, since I’d rather have everything roughed in for the moment. Anywho, once again, here’s my work flow.

I started with a cube and pushed and pulled verts till it roughly aligned with the left side of the vest. I then deleted all of the inner polygons so that all I had was a shell. I then mirrored the vest and combined both sides by merging verts in the back. From there, I extruded the mesh out to give it depth.

From there, I added a few edge loops and extruded some polys out to add the trim on the arm holes and strip in the middle of the vest. For the belt, I simply duplicated my vest and extracted a strip of polys from the waist to ensure a good fit. I then deleted the duplicate vest and extruded the belt out. I also roughed in the collar and arm.

Here’s where the model stand now. Same as before. I extracted pieces of the arm to create the gauntlet, elbow pad, and shoulder bells. I then booleaned out some holes to place small screws in the armor bits.

Hope all is well for everybody! As always, comments and critiques are welcome.:beer:

#8

Like I said about the pants(not shown) the wrinkles need some tweaking, take a look at the cloths you’re wearing now, or ask someone to throw a coat on or something. Try to keep gravity in mind too, don’t want stuff floating in micro gravity and other stuff not.

The arms are bunched up a bit oddly, it’s better around the arm pit, and like the pants, take a look at some real world examples.

Love it so far, can’t wait to see some more bothan stuff show up.

#9

Hey folks, after some work on roughing out the armor and legs, I decided to update. Truth be told, I’ve been learning a lot about work flow and that’s been causing the most hitches. I originally added wrinkles and such to the pants and arms before doing the armor pieces. This caused a huge headache when trying to model the armor bits and getting everything to fit properly while avoiding intersecting geometry. I deleted the cloth detail and have roughed out the armor pieces. I find that I like to add detail too fast though.

Here’s the the roughed out armor.

And here are the boots. I was inspired by buryme’s Yoda shoes. I was trying to find way to approach modeling shoes for the cleft feet, and I eventually settled on the design below. I plan to ad a bit more detail, but here’s the roughed out model.

I’ll be spending the majority of tomorrow modeling, so I’ll have more updates on the way. Hope all is well for everyone!

#10

Hi!

I’m excited to see this continue to develop… It’s good to see the Bothans get a little love.

A few things.

  • The helm is pretty narrow compared to the muzzle / snout of much of the Bothan reference, experiment with widening that a little.

  • While I really like the look of the helm as a whole, the protruded goggles which appear to be permanent seem a little odd. Perhaps remove one from one side all together and make the other retractable into position (by a little steam-punk linkage or something). Or maybe just make them much shorter like the reference (not come away from the front of the goggles so much). Or perhaps just get rid of them… Personally, I find the helm pre-goggles to be more aesthetic at the moment.

Keep it up :slight_smile:

#11

Hey Aaron, thanks for the critique!

You’re right about the helmet. Truth be told, I haven’t even touched the helmet since I decided to go in the Bothan direction. That will be the next section to work on.

I agree with you about the goggles. I’m looking into a few other designs that revolve around the original pre-goggle lenses.

#12

Well, this is a relatively small update; but I wanted to show how things are coming together. I’ve finally gotten around to roughing out the pouches, belts, and chest armor pieces.

Next up is reworking the helmet. As always, critiques and comments are much appreciated!

#13

Nice progress on this. I like how this is turning out.

#14

Been trying not to get burnt out between this and a few other projects. However, a few days ago I got myself back into and am ready to keep trucking. Here’s the backpack thus far. Still needs some work, but it’s getting there. I’ve been adding detail to the body and will post some updates soon.

#15

Here’s an update on the helmet. The monocle design is certainly not finalized. Any ideas or recommendations for that would be great. I’ve finally tweaked the helmet to convey the Bothan figure.

Also, here’s a pic showing my initial cloth work. Still learning how to make folds, and I think I need to study it a bit more. It still feels somewhat inaccurate

.

#16

Nice updates. Really like the changes on the helmet - the googely eye look before was kind of strange.

I think the cloth on the jacket is looking alright - a little soft.

I agree with you on the pants - what kind of material are they meant to be? That will be a good place to start - then finding some good examples of how those materials relax, stretch, and fold.

Keep up the nice modeling.

#17

I agree completely. It looks better without the eyes.

I also updated the cloth a bit.

Thanks for the critique Aaron!

Here’s some updated pics with the beginning detail work.




#18

Great update!

One item that may be an issue (and anyone please correct me if I’m wrong - I’m not an expert on Star Wars lore!!!)…

I believe the Imperials were quite racist against species apart from humans (and human clones). Thereby, the Imperial Bothan seems out of place. Perhaps just change the colors away from the imperial white and the logo on the belt to either Rebel or something random (I vote for something random, but that’s just me).

Anyway - love the update! Can’t wait to see those braids!!

:bounce:

#19

Hey man! Glad ya like the progress thus far.

As for the Bothan issue, when I chose to do it, I researched the lore a bit. The Bothans had a huge spy network that did jobs for both the Imperials and Rebels. So, I chose to stretch that a bit father and make them scouts for the empire. As far as the logo goes, I’m working on a modified imperial cog with a bothan logo in it for the shoulder pieces. So I’ll post that as soon as it’s done. :arteest:

Here’s the radio I did today and the roughed in braids.


I was lucky enough to find the arabesh (sp?) font for the type writer keys. It’s the imperial language I believe.

Also, before I forget, none of the colors in the renders are final They’re placeholders more than anything.

Anywho, off to bed and more modeling tomorrow. :bounce:

#20

Yo ben, i’m lovin’ how this is all coming togeather, i’d like to see some more asymetry as you do more work on it, but that’s just me :wink:

Keep it up, only a few days left.